We Stand Alone
by Alek34
Summary: What if Neal Caffery was just another alias? What if Neal was really Philip LaFresque, a physicist, who got in over his head in Greenland following a mysterious letter from his dead father. And what if his past is coming back to haunt him. A bit OOC. Major spoilers for Penumbra: Black Plague, and some obvious ones for Penumbra: Overture. Discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the Penumbra series, nor While Collar.

Summery: What if Neal Caffery was just another alias? What if Neal Caffery was really Philip LaFresque, a physicist, who got in over his head in Greenland following a mysterious letter from his dead father.

Crossover: "Penumbra: Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem" with "White Collar."

Prologue

Philip LaFresque, a young physicist working at Heathrow University in England, had received a letter from his seemingly deceased father, Howard, following the death of his mother. Howard, who had left him and his mother before Philip had even been born, had sent Philip a letter. The letter told him to go to a safety deposit box and to burn the contents. There, Philip learned that his father had been declared legally dead 30 years earlier. Curiosity got the best of Philip, and after studying the papers he found in the safety deposit box, he discovered the coordinates of a location in uninhabited Northern Greenland. A year later he boarded at flight to investigate, little did he know it was almost the last flight he would ever take.

In a desperate attempt searching for shelter against the harsh cold, Philip found a seeming abandon mine. Climbing inside, the ladder supporting his weight collapsed, leaving him trapped in the mine. There he discovered journals written by a crazed man who spoke of terrible horrors that filled the mine. How he'd been trapped down there in that _place_ locked in a single room, with spiders as his only food, for nearly an entire year. His journals told of how the spiders continued to grow, unlike anything he had seen before, they reached the size where they were too large to fit though the cracks under the locked door. When Philip traveled deeper into the mine, what he found could only be described as monsters. There were spiders the size of footballs, vicious dogs with almost _glowing_ yellow murderous eyes, and earthworms big enough to swallow ten people whole. Philip, however, was not the only survivor in the mine. A man Philip came to know as Red was hiding in the incinerator room, deep in the mine. Philip, having nowhere to go, made his way through the dangerous mine in an attempt to get to Red. After completing the nearly impossible task, Philip successfully reached Red, who had locked himself in the incinerator. Red begged for death. It was better to have let the story end, than to never realise it had begun.

Following Red's death, Philip continued on, deeper into the mine. He expected more tunnels and rock, but what he found could only be described as one word: hell. Philip entered a long hallway, he looked forward and saw a figured standing at the end. He considered waving the person over. But then the lights began to flicker off, one by one, until Philip was standing in complete darkness. He took at step back, and something hard came crashed down against the back of his skull.

Philip awoke in a poorly lit room, the door locked. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but his head ached. After escaping the room, he realised he wasn't in the mine any longer. He was somewhere far worse. He'd found where his father had been all of those years. It was called The Archaic. There had been 88 living employees here: Scientists, Archeologists, Doctors, and in his father's case, Translators. 88 people lived here. 87 of them were dead, or infected. The people infected with the Tuurngate virus were transformed into Zombie like creatures that attacked on sight. The rest were slaughtered, or infected, yet not changed quite yet. Dr. Eminiss, had been on the verge of change when Philip spoke to him, he was going to try and help Philip, but they hadn't enough time. Before Philip or Eminiss had had time to say anything Eminiss attacked Philip full force. Philip was able to trick him into an airtight room and lock the door behind. His screeches and banging against the door scared Philip to no end. Those things were strong, fast, and deadly.

Philip to had been infected. Although, unlike the others, Philip did not change into a mindless zombie with only murder on the mind, Philip got Clarence. Clarence, the Tuurngate virus in the form of a second personality. Clarence and Philip took ages to start getting along, at first Clarence had wanted Philip dead, or at least out of the picture. Once Philip finally was able to escape from that hellhole he and Clarence finally reached the same page. It took time, but eventually Philip started sharing the 'steering wheel' with Clarence, they took turns. They never went back to Heathrow, Philip dyed his white blonde hair a dark brown, and changed his British accent to an American one. He started going by the name Neal Caffery, after Cal McCaffery from the series "State of Play." They moved to New York City in America, for Philip to try and forget the horrors of the Archaic, of seeing his father's dead body, of unintentionally murdering Dr. Amabel Swanson, the only one there who had survived and remained uninfected. She had discovered a cure for the Tuurngate virus, she was trying to help Philip destroy Clarence. But Clarence, being inside Philip's mind tricked him into thinking she was an infected trying to kill _him._

Clarence got into the habit of keeping Philip in the dark whenever it was his turn to 'drive.' As long as Clarence didn't murder or assault anyone, it was alright with Philip. That is, until Philip woke up one day to find them selves locked up in prison. He'd be arrested or something to do with bond forgery. After four years trapped in that place, it seemed like two though, he and Clarence split the time. They tried to escape, for some reason the intense feeling of dread flooded over them, the feeling that something was coming. Clarence's brothers were coming for them, they could feel it, like a sixth sense. The feds and the guards had thought they ran for a girl, but really, they just didn't want to go back to Greenland. Clarence's brothers didn't _accept_him, they considered him as good as human. The same Agent who had put them, or Clarence, in prison, caught them again, but after some negotiating on Clarence's part, they were released into the custody of the FBI as a consultant. As far as the world was concerned, Philip LaFresque disappeared and died somewhere in Greenland years earlier, body never found, just like his father.

Part 1

"Neal! Hey, can you come here a sec? I need to talk to you." Special Agent Peter Burke was standing in the doorway to his office, in the downtown New York City FBI Headquarters. Philip got up from his desk and walked over to Peter.

"Hey Peter, what's up?" Philip walked into the office and Peter closed the door behind him.

"Tonight's me and El's Anniversary, we're going out to dinner, I wanted your opinion on this gift." Peter held up a silver necklace in the shape of a key, with a sparkling blue stone surrounded by diamonds. "Its sterling silver, with a blue topaz stone framed by diamonds. You know, the 'key' to my heart, kind of thing."

"Yeah, that's great, I'm sure Elizabeth will love it."

"You think so? Good. Should I wear the blue tie or the red?"

"With that suit? Blue, definitely."

"Blue? Okay, thanks Neal."

"So where are you taking her out to dinner?"

"There's this cute little Italian place downtown, you know how much El loves Italian."

"I'm sure you guys will have a great time," Philip smiled and started to turn toward the door. He wasn't exactly working on any cases at the moment, he and Clarence had been locked in an intense game of hangman at their desk, Clarence was winning.

'_You never take _me_ out to dinner like that Monkey.' _Clarence thought.

Ah, Clarence's annoying nickname for Philip, Monkey, because he's human, Clarence always thought it was funny.

'_What are you saying. We ordered Chinese just last night, _I _for one _love_ Chinese, and maybe I would, if you hadn't gotten us thrown in prison for almost four years.'_

'_Oh jeez, you're gonna hold that over my head forever ain't ya Monkey.'_

'_Yeah, probably.' _Philip smirked and sat down at his desk.

"What are you smiling about? Something good happen?" Special Agent Jones asked. Not including Philip and Clarence, Jones was like Peter's second in command. He's a pretty cool guy once you got to know him. He and Philip had shared a few drinks on occasion. Clarence even liked him.

"No, sorry, I was just remembering something from earlier. Uh… You had to be there."

"Oh, that's okay, what'd Peter want? Do we finally have a case to work on?"

"No, he just wanted my opinion on this gift for Elizabeth, it's their anniversary."

"Oh really? What'd he get her?"

"A nice key necklace, silver with blue topaz, I think she'll like it."

'_You've never given _me_ anything for _our_ anniversary.'_

'_Ha. Ha. Ha. You're so very funny. Clarence, I'm trying to talk to Jones, if you don't mind.' _Philip thought_. _Even though he was working with FBI Agents, had been for over a year now, none of them ever seemed to notice anything was wrong with him. They all just thought everything he did oddly was because he, or Clarence really, was a conman. They never really noticed the blonde roots on his head when he put off re-dying it, or that occasionally he would slip into his normal English accent. Or that he wouldn't always react to someone calling the name Neal. Or even that technically they were sometimes talking to two completely different people. He and Clarence may share a mind, but they were different, very different. Philip was more of a jeans and tee shirt kind of guy, but somehow Clarence had managed to clear out his wardrobe and force him to dress much more classy.

'_When do you think we're gonna get another case Monkey? I'm bored. I hate being bored.'_

'_Oh, because I just love it.'_

'_No really, did everyone just decide to not commit crimes today?'_

'_How should I know." _

'_Can't you ask? Couldn't they give us something? Anything? Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't you an' me go out an' do something? We could steal something? Manipulate some people?'_

'_No.'_

'_You're no fun.' _

"Caffery… Caffery…. Hey Caffery!"

"Hmm what?"

"Diana and I are going for drinks after work, we wanted to know if you want to come?"

"Oh, uh, yeah that sounds great. We- I'd love to."

'_Opps, almost let it slip there Monkey.'_

'_Shhhhhhh.' _

"Great."

'_Awkward.' _

'_It wouldn't have been if you'd shut up.'_

'_Oh Philip, you wound me.'_

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Peter walked over, where Philip, Jones, and Diana were all sitting.

"We're going to go get drinks after work, we'd invite you but we know you and Elizabeth have plans. Happy Anniversary." Diana said.

"Thanks, and you're playing hangman, that's an _interesting _way to spend FBI time."

"What?" Jones seemed confused he hadn't seen Philip and Clarence's game. Peter motioned to the paper. "Uh, no we weren't playing, Diana? Neal?" Diana shook her head then proceeded to walk back to her desk.

A moment passed.

"What? A guy can't play hangman by himself, jeez, I didn't know there were rules on these kind of things."

"How do you play hangman alone?"

"Don't you guys have real work to do instead of criticizing what I do in my spare time?"

"No not really." They smirked. Philip shook his head, and turned toward the computer.

'_Really smooth there Monkey.'_

'_Like you would have done better.'_

'_Yeah, yeah I would have.'_ Philip scoffed out loud.

"What was that?" Peter asked him.

"What? Nothing. I better get going, I told Moz I'd meet him for lunch, I'll be back later."

'_I thought we were having lunch today.'_

'_We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner together _every _day.'_

"Uh," Peter was a bit caught of guard "okay, I'll see you when you get back, take your time." Peter watched Neal get his coat, and silly little hat, and leave. He considered following the young man, but El had been telling him needed to put more trust in Neal, and he had been. He walked back to his office and sat down at his desk. They had nothing to do, so he really didn't blame Neal for wanting to leave early. He picked up some paperwork out of his box and started to fill it out when his phone started to ring.

"Special Agent Peter Burke." He said into the mike of the phone.

"Hello. This is an automated call from the Archaic concerning… Philip… LaFresque… He… is scheduled to meet with… Doctor Eminiss… in the… Examination Room… on… Friday… the… third. We believe that… Philip… is… working… in your facility. It would be greatly appreciated if you could get… him… to confirm this appointment. Thank you for your time."

'_Weird.' _He thought. _'Philip LaFresque.' _The name sounded familiar, as though he'd heard it once or twice before, but hadn't thought anything of it. More out of pure boredom than curiosity, Peter typed in the name into the FBI database in hope of a picture.

"_Phillip Laphrescue"_

_Searching… Searching… Searching…_

_No Results. _

"_Phillip Lafrescue"_

_Searching… Searcing… Searching…_

_No Results._

"_Phillip Lafresque."_

_Searching… Searching… Searching…_

_No Results._

He assumed that the name must be French, being as he took Spanish in high school, he thought he should ask someone else.

'_French names always have funny spelling.' _Peter thought. He looked up and saw Jones and Diana talking at their desks.

"Jones, Diana, do you guys have a minute?" They looked up from their conversation.

"Uh yeah no problem boss," Jones replied, and they all walked into Peters office.

"I got this weird phone call asking for some for someone named 'Philip LaFresque.' I was trying to find him in the data base, but he either doesn't have a file, or I'm spelling the name wrong." Diane leaned in and looked at the computer.

"Philip is sometimes spelled with one 'L' and sometimes two."

"Really? Okay I didn't try that. What about the last name 'LaFresque'?"

"You should ask Caffery, I'm pretty sure he speaks French, he'd probably know."

"You think? He should be back from lunch soon, we can ask him then."

Around twenty minutes later, Philip walked into the building carrying a take out box from lunch. He and Clarence went to a Thai Restaurant a few blocks away, Moz hadn't been able to make it, something about the newest stuff from the Russian surplus coming into today. It was always very awkward when Clarence wanted one thing and Philip wanted another, and they both tried to order. Philip had long since gotten over the notion of people thinking he was completely insane.

"Oh, hey Neal, can you come here and help us out with a little problem? You speak French right?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Just come here," Philip shrugged and walked up to where Peter, Jones, and Diana were all standing in the office.

"What's up guys? And lady."

"We're trying to find the right spelling for this French name. LaFresque." If Peter hadn't known Neal the way he did, he wouldn't have even noticed the slight waver of fear and recognition in the young man's eyes.

"Uh… sure, I guess 'L-A-capital F-R-E-S-Q-U-E. What's this for?"

"Got some from a doctors office or something, this guy LaFresque, has an appointment or something. We were bored, figured why not look up the guy and let him know, right?"

"Uh… yeah I guess. What's the first name?" Neal sounded a bit on edge, but he was hiding it well.

"Philip. Here, come on, we're about try and find him in the database."

Philip almost sighed in relief. He was a British Citizen, not American, so nothing about him should pop up.

"_Philip LaFresque"_

_Searching… Searching… Searching_

_No Results._

"Huh, do you think that Philip should have two 'L's'?"

"Yeah that's definitely it, he's probably not even American, I doubt he has a file," Clarence said.

'_What are you doing! Don't tell him that! He's probably going to go through some weird international thing! What do you think he'll do if he does that and see's OUR picture!'_

"You think? The phone call said that he worked here, so he should have a file, you can't possibly work here without one."

'_Relax Monkey, no harm no foul.' _

'_If you don't mind Clarence, I'd prefer for Peter and the FBI not to know who we are. Or at least who I am. Peter's only just started trusting us, if you hadn't noticed.'_

"Well, they probably had the wrong number," Philip said.

"Yeah, you're probably right, lets call them back." Philip's eyes widened.

"Are you sure? That's probably not a good idea." Philip said.

"No, its fine, plus, we don't want them calling back if it's not the right number. This is the FBI Neal, we can't afford to get calls like this when something could be going down." Peter picked up the phone and hit the operator button.

"Hi, this is Agent Peter Burke, in White Collar, can you connect me with the last phone to call this number? Yes, thank you." He put the phone down slightly and covered the mike with his hand "it's ringing," he said, and put it down and turned on the speakerphone.

_Ring… Ring… Ring… "_Hello, you have reached The Archaic. This number is only used in cases of emergencies for the elevated caste. For the Machine Room press 1… For the Infirmary press 2… For the Library press 3… For the Examination Room press 4…" Peter pressed 4.

"Uh yes, I'm looking for a Doctor—"

"Thank you for calling… The Examination Room… The room contains… Zero… elevated caste… and… Zero… workers. For any mental breakdowns, please refer to your issued cyanide capsule. For appointments please press 1."

"Did that computer just say 'cyanide capsules?'" Peter pressed 1.

"Appointments, for… Doctor Amabel Swanson press 3… for… Doctor Eloff Carpenter press 7… for… Doctor Richard Eminiss press 8…" Peter pressed 8.

_Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring… _"Hallo." An eerie raspy voice picked up the phone. "Das ist Doktor Eminiss, wer bist du? Ist das Philip?"

"Uh, hello, my name is Special Agent Peter Burke with the FBI, we're returning a call about an appoint for Philip LaFresque."

"Ah yes, Philip. _The circumference of the Earth is exactly __40,075.16 kilometers_. Is he there now?"

"I'm sorry, there has been some sort of misunderstanding, there is no one here by that name."

"But that can't be. _A dime has exactly 118 ridges around the edge. _I'm sure he must be there. I need him here immediately! _There are 400 ways of playing the first move on each side in a game of chess 197,281 ways of playing the first two moves on each side, an estimated 318,979,564,000 ways of playing the first four moves on each side._

"Uh… Okay, we would appreciate it if you didn't call this number again."

"But I must speak with Philip!"

"What do you want with him?" Philip asked.

'_What?' _Peter mouthed to him. He just shrugged.

"Why do you want Philip so badly?"

"Because! He is… is… one of us! He is one of us! One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us one of us ! RAHH!" Peter quickly clicked the phone off.

"Jeez, what the hell was that? The guy must be insane." Clarence rolled his eyes.

"Well thanks for sharing Sherlock," Clarence said smugly.

"Do you think this guy Philip could be dangerous?" Diana asked.

"I don't know."

'_Shit Monkey! Wait! You don't think they're actually going to try and come after us do you? How could they have possibly know where we are?'_

'_I don't know Clarence. The Tuurngate have that telepathic field thing right? You don't think they can… you know… read our minds? Maybe they can sense us, or something. Remember when we were in prison? We_ felt_ the infected getting close.'_

'_Eminiss couldn't come here though right? We're in America. At the FBI!' _Clarence practically yelled in Philip's ear.

"Hey, could you guys give us a minute," Peter motioned Diana and Jones out of the room. Philip turned to leave, but Peter stopped him.

"Not just yet Caffrey, I want to talk to you." Once the other Agents left the room, Peter began to speak.

"Neal, do you know Philip LaFresque?"

"What? Never heard of him before today."

"Are you sure? Its just you seemed a little startled when you first heard his name."

"I don't know why, I've never met anyone named LaFresque before."

"Okay, thanks, hey could you ask Diana to come back when you get to your desk?"  
>"Yeah, sure thing."<p>

'_Oh, he's on to you Monkey.'_

'_You don't know that.'_

Philip could practically hear Clarence smirk.

"Hey, Diana, Peter wants to talk to you."

"Okay thanks Neal." Diana walked over to Peter's office.

"Yeah boss?"

"Ah Diana, thanks, I was wondering if you could try and help me out with this. I think Neal knows more about this whole Eminiss/LaFresque thing than he's letting on. I think he was right when he said that they weren't Americans, we need to talk to Washington about getting an ID."

"I'm on it."

"Thanks Diana, and don't tell Neal."

"Sure thing boss."

Part 2

It had been a week since the phone call from Dr. Eminiss. It was taking its toll on Philip and Clarence, both were on edge, just waiting to get attacked and either slaughtered or dragged back to Greenland. Peter had been paying closer attention to what they were doing. It really wasn't helping ease the anxiety. Being on the anklet kept them from leaving. Should Eminiss, or any other infected, show up Philip or Clarence would cut the anklet in an instant and make a run for it. Clarence was keeping fake IDs around the flat, making sure everything was in order for when they had to flee the country, from the feds and the infected.

'_They know we're here Clarence. They know where we are. I want to get the bloody hell out of this place.'_

'_I know Monkey. I know.'_

Diana walked into Peter's office without knocking and quickly shut the door behind her.

"I have news."

"What did you find?"

"Philip LaFresque, French born. English raised. Born in 1978. Age, 23, he would be 33 next month if he was still alive."

"LaFresque's dead?"

"Disappeared in 2001. His body was never found. It'll take a bit more time to find out anything else about him."

"So he could be alive?"

"Very unlikely, he disappeared in uninhabited Northern Greenland. Temperatures are so low he wouldn't have survived long on his own out there. There was a charter boat waiting for him to return, but he never did, and no one was exactly eager to go looking."

"What about Eminiss?"

"Nothing. The guy doesn't exist. It must be an alias. This 'Archaic' place doesn't exist either. I checked the phone number we have for the place, it technically doesn't exist either. The only physically way to call the number is if they've call us first. I ran the other names they said on the recording, Swanson and Carpenter, both were said to have died nearly 40 years ago."

"Do we have a description or a picture of the guy?"

"Scotland Yard is sending me one soon."

"Okay thanks Diana, good job, keep looking."

"Looking for what?"

"Neal. What are you doing?"

"I _was_ coming to talk to you, but I see I must have interrupted something, I'll come back later."

"No, we're done here." Diana left.

"So, what do you want to ask me?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to that Gastro Pub down the street for lunch, but if you're busy…"

"No that sounds great, I just need to wrap up a few things here before we can go."

Later that night Diana sat down at her computer. She'd gotten home from work two hours earlier, Chirstie was on call, but she wasn't needed at the moment. They'd had dinner, ordered in a pizza. Diana had just sat down to check for that picture of LaFresque.

"Hey are you still working?" Chirstie walked in and sat on the couch next to her girlfriend.

"Yeah, I'm trying to find information on this guy, Philip LaFresque, Scotland Yard is about to send me a picture of him. He apparently disappeared nearly ten years ago."

"Really? Why try and find him now?"

"We think that Neal might have known this guy LaFresque, Peter asked me to look into it. Ah, here's the picture now… Oh… Oh my god. Is that? Oh my god."

"That can't be? How can?"

"I need to go find Peter now."

"Yeah, yeah go."

Elizabeth Burke, just finished making dinner, she and her husband Peter were about to sit down when the doorbell rang.

"That better not be Neal." Peter groaned and walked over to answer it. "Diana?"

"We need to talk." He stepped aside to allow her entrance.

"What's wrong? Has something happened?"

"Is Neal here?"

"What? Neal, no."

"How old is Neal?"

"Um… he's about 33 I think."

"This is about Philip LaFresque."

"What did you find?"

"Scotland Yard sent over a picture of LaFresque along with background 30 minutes ago."

"What's going on?" Elizabeth walked in the living room after hearing the commotion.

"This is just something I asked Diana to look into," Peter answered.

"I don't think you're going to like what I found."

"What, what is it?"

"I think the name 'Neal Caffery' is an alias."

"What? That can't be."

"Look." Diana held up a printed picture of a younger Neal Caffery. He had messy platinum blonde hair, bright green eyes, and was wearing an off white long sleeve shirt with an orange vest over.

"Is that Neal?" Elizabeth asked.

"According to Scotland Yard, this is Philip LaFresque."

"Dammit Neal," Peter scowled under his breath. "Didn't you say LaFresque was British though?"

"He is. But anyone with enough practice and imitate just about any accent."

"I can't believe Neal would pull something like this. It's just like him to do that. I can't believe I didn't pick up on it either. We need to go talk to Neal. Sorry about dinner hun."

Peter and Diana went and jumped in Diana's car, and sped off to June's house. Diana briefed Peter on everything she'd just learned about Neal. A British physicist, father left before he was born, he was raised by his mother in Mayfair.

"Do you mind if I go up and talk to him alone first?"

"Yeah of course, this isn't an official case."

"Diana thank you so much for everything, I can actually get a cab back, I'll talk to you tomorrow at work, okay?"

"Of course boss, don't be too hard on him."

He marched inside up to Neal's loft. Peter started to bang on the door.

"Open up." He could hear the sound of someone inside falling and taking what sounded like a lamp with them. After a moment, a tousled Neal Caffery opened the door. Peter didn't say anything just pushed the door further open and stepped inside, slamming it behind him.

"Peter—"

"You lied to me Neal. You've been lying to me from the start. I know everything. I know _you_ are Philip LaFresque. You lied to me when you said you'd never heard of the guy. I know LaFresque is English, so your accent's not real. You have blonde hair, and green eyes, not black and blue, respectively. And you're a physicist, who supposedly died ten years ago."

Philip put his head down, but Peter grabbed him and forced him to look up.

"Why did you lie to me _Philip_?" Peter demanded, Philip replied in a very English accent.

"I started the lie before I'd even met you Peter, and we—I did it for a good reason."

"And what reason might that be?" Peter asked, still holding Philip's head in place to prevent him from looking away.

'_Don't tell him anything! We should go now Monkey, there's nothing left for us here!'_

"They're looking for us, you know that."

"Us?"

'_Oh just great, don't tell him!'_

"Uh…" Peter slammed Philip against the wall violently. "Ow! It doesn't' matter!"

"It matters to me. You do this all the time _Philip_, you slip up and say 'we' or 'us' instead of 'I' or 'me'. Why is that?"

"This is none of his goddam business Philip! Just grab your stuff, we're leaving!" Clarence shouted.

"I just… look Peter, I wanted to tell you! I just, left that part of me behind, back in Greenland, okay, I really don't want to talk about it." Philip said.

"Why did you just do that? You yelled at yourself in third person with an entirely different accent. Why?" Peter sounded suddenly calm. He let go of his grip on Philip.

"Way to go hotshot! No come on! We're leaving!" Clarence yelled.

"Will you stop doing that! This isn't my fault, you're the one who keeps interrupting." Philip shot back.

"Philip? Why was this doctor looking for you? Is there more than one of you in there?" Philip sighed.

"Will you promise not to tell?" Philip asked. Peter gave him 'the look' and crossed his arms. "Okay. There are two of us. Myself, Philip, and Clarence."

"Hi," Clarence said smugly.

"_I _didn't steal or forge _anything_, Clarence on the other hand, is a bit of an… arsehole. Trust me, I have to live with him."

"This really isn't some con with you is it. You're serious. What about Dr. Eminiss?"

"He's infected. One of Clarence's brothers." Peter raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not insane or anything. Clarence and I are in the same body, but we aren't the same person. I was in The Archaic, there I got infected with the Tuurngate virus, but instead of being completely overcome like the others, I was only halfway overcome, that half is Clarence, My uh… second personality. That was ten years ago. We've been together ever since. We told everyone our name was Neal Caffery, and we changed my hair and wore colour contacts, we didn't want to be found. But, they're coming. We can feel it, I think its something about a telepathic field or something, like we can hear each other kind of."

Peter didn't know what to think. Part of him wanted to throw Neal into the car and drive him off to the psych ward in Bellevue. He wanted to believe Neal, but he couldn't help but think, that maybe, Neal was just crazy. He has a split personality; he's probably schizophrenic, having delusions from his break from reality. He probably believes this story completely. Not even realizing that anything was wrong. But another part of him just wanted to just give Neal a hug and tell him everything was going to be okay, and just keep this between the _three_ of them. But he knew Neal was sick. If he didn't at least try and get Neal some psychological help, he was being a bad friend. This Dr. Eminiss was probably just another mental patient. He had said Caffery was one of them, is that what he meant. One of them. A mental patient?

"Don't worry Philip, we're going to get you some help, okay?"

"He's not crazy you know. I mean, I can make him crazy if I want to. His mind is my mind, I can make him see whatever I want him to see. And frankly, Philly and I have been getting along quite well these past couple of years. I'm not going to let you jeopardize my relationship with Philip, you got that?" Clarence growled, keeping Philip away from the conversation. "You see, I know what you're up to, you're going to try and put me and Philip in some mental hospital in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Philip won't like that, and they're never going to let him out, because you see he doesn't have a mental illness, he has a virus. They're not going to 'cure' anything. Philly and I have been through enough, can't you just leave it alone."

To Be Continued... Maybe... I was just insanely bored when I wrote this.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar or Penumbra.

AN: For the sake of this story, I am going to 'ignore' a few things. Like Kate, as far as I can tell, she isn't going to be a part of this story, I don't know, I just don't have a place for her. Also, in Penumbra Requiem, level 5 I think it was, you fix a satellite, that's how I am going to justify the phone thing. And in Black Plague, I'm just going to say that the antidote Amabel came up with _didn't_ work, or she didn't write it down, because I like Clarence.

_"This facility's security level is high enough that no trace it exists beyond the confines of these walls- not even the Archaic Central Caste have records of its location. In fact, the only link to this place in the outside world is the notes I left behind many years ago, no rescue attempts have been made, not one person has tried to enter the facility. Just before the virus was released, I sent a message out to someone I could trust. I can only assume my son, Philip, has received the note, and done what I asked. No matter what happens down here, at least I can rest easy knowing that no trace remains of this place, that those secrets remain buried here."_

_Howard LaFresque_

_Chief Translator _

Part 3

Location: Greenland

10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)

_"Between the light and shadow, exists an entire world. That world is not necessarily our own. Get out now." _The door was locked, it could only be opened by pure human blood. So, why didn't it work for me? I'd managed to escape from the room they'd locked me in. I didn't know who _they _were. Red had just died. I had found a key amongst his ashes, it helped me reach a long spiraling stair case that went to a hallway. The lights went out and I eventually awoke in that room. There was a large air vent in the room, using a coin I had found in the room I was able to unscrew the vent from the wall.

"_We're through the thick of it now. If you, like me, have just escaped through the ventilation, we shouldn't be too far from the stronghold set up in the mess hall. Should be safe there. I've been marking my route, if you follow that, you should be fine. Almost home and dry now. _

_I heard Howard's been working on a cure. Maybe we can beat this thing after all. Maybe, when I get back, we'll be able to sort everything out, and by the time you make it through, you'll be just in time for tea and medals. _

_Maybe even some hot chocolate. How about that?_

_I can't wait. I love hot chocolate. _

_Neil Oswald_

_Chief Chemist_

_PS Careful of the mess hall security - I designed it myself. It's sensitive to organic material."_

Chief Chemist Neil Oswald, he hadn't stood a chance. The first thing I saw when I exited the vent, was his dead, decaying body. He was lying face down in a pool of his own blood. The smell was nauseating. He'd been there for days, weeks even. The freezing cold had managed to preserve him for who knows how long. I could see a laser system set up in front of him, using a nearby bin I was able to safely climb over. The door needed a blood sample to be opened. I had yet to come up against what I would soon face. I pricked my finger and waited for the door to open. It didn't. I tried everything to pry it open. My attempts were worthless. The stronghold was in the mess hall, that's what Oswald had written, was he mistaken. I pounded my fists against the door, but it was useless. I saw another door to the side, but it was sealed off, should I really try to go through it? Someone went through all this trouble to block it. I thought this over, as I removed the piled up debris.

Part 4

Location: New York

Current

"You're obviously very ill, okay uh… Clarence… we're going to get you some help."

"Uh, I don't think so _Peter._ Philip and I are going to leave, but not with you." Luckily Philip having an English accent, and Clarence having a scratching American one, made it easy to differentiate them.

"Oh, is that right?" Peter motioned to Philip's anklet.

"Okay, you know, Philly and I will still be here tomorrow, so why don't we talk about this later. I've been with Philip for ten years now, that's longer than you, and we've been just fine. Now, Peter, go home to your wife, and leave us along, 'kay, thanks, bye." Clarence tried to shove Peter out the door into the hallway.

"We can talk about this tomorrow or something," Philip added as a reassurance. The next thing Peter knew, the door was closing on his face. He stood there for a moment before sighing and walking back downstairs to get a cab. It was another 30 minutes before he got back home to Elizabeth.

"Peter! Thank god your back! What's going on! Is something wrong with Neal! Is he okay?"

"El…" He didn't know what he should do. Neal, or Philip and Clarence, had just been locked up for four years, if he started going around telling people that he was completely insane they'd lock him up again in some mental hospital for who knows how long. "Neal's fine, absolutely fine, sorry for the scare. Why don't we have dinner now." He put on his best smile, he hated lying to Elizabeth, but he had to protect Neal, or whoever.

Peter walked into work that morning, he hadn't slept very well last night, he couldn't help but think about Neal/Philip/Clarence all night. His name was really just Philip though wasn't it, 'Neal' was an alias, and 'Clarence' was a second personality. So who was Philip? A physicist who taught English at a university in England? Peter had known the young con for several years, and worked with him for two. But he was just starting to realize that he knew even less about the young man than he'd originally thought. He wondered if Mozzie knew. His real name might have been Philip, but Peter knew him as Neal, so that was what he would continue to call him. Peter and Neal would have to have a good long conversation later.

Peter walked into his office and sat down, Diana was right behind him.

"Peter, what did you find out? What did Neal say?" Peter sighed.

"Diana, everything that we've learned about this, about Neal, I need to try and keep it to yourself right now. I don't want to risk putting Neal in danger."

"Danger? Peter you can't just start keeping me in the dark now, you need to tell me what happened."

"Neal _is_ Philip LaFresque. They're the same person. Caffery was just an alias the whole time. I think something bad must have happened to him around ten years ago. Neal wasn't the one who committed all the forgeries and thefts, that was someone else, Clarence."

"What? So Neal's been innocent this whole time? How can that be?"

"Neal, well, Diana, he has a second personality. Clarence. I have no idea which one we've been talking to all this time. Or at least which one of them we've been talking to the most."

"What? There are two of them? So you think something traumatic happened to him to make him split his personality?"

"I'm not sure, he said that he's been infected with something. I want to get Neal some help, but I don't want word to spread and have him be institutionalized."

"I understand, does anyone else know?"

"Not that I know of, but last night, Neal and Clarence said that someone was after them, I don't know. At first I thought he might be trying to pull some kind of con. But now, having talked to 'both' of them, I'm not so sure."

"We can keep this quite until we know more."

"Thanks Diana." He smiled, and she nodded and then went back into the main room to get working on a new case that'd just come in. Neal still hadn't shown up, Peter was starting to get a little worried that he was trying to run. He pulled up the information on Neal, it said he wasn't far, so maybe he'd just gotten stuck in traffic and was a little late, like any other day.

"Peter do you have a minute?" Hughes, his boss, was standing outside the office door.

"Of course, I was waiting on Neal, but he's not here yet, so."

"Do you know when he'll be in? This involves both of you."

"Should be here any minute now. Oh there he is now," Philip walked in office, he and Clarence had been up all night arguing, they'd barely slept at all. He looked and saw Hughes and Peter staring, he gulped and made his way over to them. He didn't know if Peter had said anything to Hughes about Clarence, so he thought he'd play it safe.

"Good, now that you're both here we can discuss this new case." Philip glanced at Peter, tilted his head toward Hughes and mouthed 'does he know?' Peter shook his head and Philip tried to relax a bit more.

"What's this about?" Philip asked, he couldn't help but be a bit on edge.

"Its come to our attention that several students attending NYU have been kicked out for infringing on copyright laws in a specific English class there. We think that they're being purposefully set up. There is a big writing competition coming up with a full ride scholarship as the prize for whoever wins, we think someone is trying to eliminate the competition. A good friend of mine's son is a TA in that class. I wanted to try and put Neal in undercover, we're going to help you with the papers to keep up appearances. Do you think you can do that?"

'_Wow, being a physicist and an _English professor _is about to pay off after all Monkey.' _Philip smiled.

"Yeah, I think I can do that." Philip smirked.

"Great, I've already set everything up. You'll be going under as Gabriel Carver, an English student." He handed Philip a folder, "this is everything you'll need, I just need to put your picture on an ID and you'll be all set." Hughes smiled and walked out of the room to go make the ID's.

'_I love it when we go undercover, that's always a thrill, not quite the same as running for your life, but a good second.' _

'_You always were a thrill seeker. As far as I can tell, it doesn't always end well.'_

"So, we need to talk." Peter broke the silence. Philip's smile fell, he crossed his arms and looked over the wall.

"What about?" He asked innocently.

"You know damn well."

"No I don't, there is nothing wrong with me," Philip whispered sharply.

"So what! It's normal for two people to walk around in the same body, acting like one person, now?"

"Okay look, I know that's not 'normal' but there is nothing that anyone can do, and honestly, Clarence and I have long since worked out our difference, we're not trying to kill each other anymore. So I don't see what the bloody problem is!"

"How on Earth could you two possibly try to kill each other?"

"What? That's all you got from that! We're good now, we're friends, we're perfectly happy with our current set up."

"Which is?"

"I have the even months, he has the odd months."

"You're serious?"

"Yes!"

"Okay look Philip, you need medical help alright, I'm going to try and get you some time with a therapist, and we can try to work this out."

"Work what out exactly? Clarence and I have had 10 sodding years to work it out! You know what Clarence? I think Peter's trying to get rid of you."

"I'm starting to get that impression to Monkey." Clarence replied.

"Okay, so there are two of you right? So why exactly have you _both_ been going around acting like a third person for the past 2 years?"

"We didn't—we thought—well. It just happened."

"I understand why you changed your name, by the hair, accent, eyes, why?"

"You know what, you want me to be me again, fine. We're going back to June's and I'll see you later. Bye." Philip stormed out.

"Neal!"

"Sod it!" He yelled back from half way to the elevator.

'_You're going to change your hair back?' _Clarence question.

'_Hell yeah, I'm going to walk in tomorrow, blonde hair, usually attire, and I'm not going to use this ridiculous accent anymore, it has been two years, I can only take so much.' _

"Hey boss, I see your talk with Neal didn't go well. What happened?" Diana walked over asked, everyone in the room had been watching Neal's exit just moments ago.

"He said he didn't want any help, and that he was going to give up the 'Neal Routine.'"

"What does that mean?"

"I have no idea. But I don't know how much of 'Neal' was an act to Philip and Clarence."

Part 5

Location: Greenland

10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)

This wasn't like before. With the dogs, those horrible yellow eyes. The spiders, most of them bigger than my entire head. This _thing _was walking down the corridor, growling, mumbling things. I hadn't been expecting it. I was searching the room for anything that might be useful. I'd found a syringe and some rubbing alcohol. The next thing I knew, the locked door at the end of the hallway was open. And that thing walked out. I'd barely managed to close the door before it turned the corner. The growling stopped for only a moment, but it was enough to tell me, the room was no longer safe. The door practically exploded on impact. Blood soaked arms ripping it apart. It took every ounce of my self-control not to start screaming the second it entered the room in which I was hiding. I was afraid of passing out from pure terror. I had to pull myself together. I had no weapon; I was like a sitting duck there. The thing was hardly ten feet away from where I was hiding. I quietly got to my feet and began to slowly walk towards the door, my eyes never leaving the creature. I was so close to the where the door used to be. The creature twitched, I couldn't help it, I gasped. In an instant it had spun and round and was on me. I screamed in pain as it attacked me, I narrowly escaped its grasp and took off running back towards the door I'd come from. It was right on my tail. I was running as fast as I physically could, slamming into the wall when I was unable to make the sharp turn the hallway made. I could hear the creature hit the wall a millisecond after myself. I could see the door. The creature was howling at me, making grabs at the hood of my jacket. I raced through the doorway and slammed the door crashing down against the creature. This door fortunately was more secure, there was no way that thing could get it open.

My whole body was tingling. My heart was pounding in my chest. I wanted to just stay on that spot on the floor forever. Neil Oswald worked here. He _designed_ these systems. His blood would surely work on the door. Wouldn't it?

Thanks for the reviews :D I love reviews, they make me really happy xD

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar, or Penumbra (if I did, Requiem would have been much more horror oriented than it was. There wasn't even anyone trying to kill me, or chase me. I hate being chased, it seriously scares the crap out of me, being chased by that giant worm in Overture, I almost had a heart attack the first few times.)

AN: AsheBriannaSerenity thanks so much for your kind words, it made me feel really good 'bout myself :D I replayed Overture and Black Plague yesterday, they seemed so much sorter and less scary the second time around, too bad. While replaying them, I noticed that I got a few other facts wrong. I said there were 88 people in Shelter, really there were 57. Where I got 88 out of that, I don't know... lets just ignore that... O_o

"_Inuit Mythology_

_Christian Foresight_

_First Published 1903_

_The Tuurngate_

_ Legends speak of disembodied spirits malicious in nature, sabotaging tools, turning hunts bad, and at times even possessing the weak or unfortunate. A Tuurngate appears to have no recognised or agreed origin, both in terms of the legend itself and the individual being, causing great doubt to be entirely justifiable. Can we, in our Christian foresight really believe in such possessions and evil spirits? It seems perfectly clear to this writer that the real origin of the Tuurngait belief lies in the Christian demon. For, as we are taught by the generous and selfless Moravian church – without whose support, our people would have no doubt starved many years ago. The demon is capable of possession and of countless atrocities, which only the good Christian man can avoid through a lifetime of humility and devotion."_

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)**

_ 'Hello?... Hello, can you hear me?... What am I even doing here?... Who am I?... Why can't I hear their voices?... Well thanks for the help. I am having an existential nightmare and you wont even say a word!' _I put my hands against my ears, desperate to make the voice stop. I felt my knees hit the floor. I frantically looked around myself, it sounded as though they were speaking directing into my head, I couldn't find the source of the voice. It sounded rough, definitely American, male, um... GAHH! My vision explodes white.

'_If we must continue to share this brain-space, I think I should have a name. Strange... So rare an opportunity to select ones own nomenclature, and yet I find myself at a loss. Any ideas, monkey?_' Before I even knew what was happening I was on the floor completely. What was happening to me!

'_So much storage in this mind of yours... did you realise you have a whole section in here devoted to film titles? Three thousand, three hundred and a half film you've seen. You've only got the first half of Its a Wonderful Life in here! Huh... How does it end? Now I'll never know...' _Confusion filled me, I tried to get up, but quickly felt myself being pushed back down.

'_You know... Clarence... Thats not a bad handle - I am something of a guardian angel.' _Horror, was all I felt. I'd been walking through the sewers. After reaching the mess hall, I'd found a note. The survivors had already left, they went through the mine. But that's how I had came in. The only living people in that mine were myself and Red. There was no way they'd made it out alive.

_ "Howard might still be there, he's kind of our leader." _The note had said._ Howard? My father? There was a chance that my father was alive. After all these years, I might get the chance to finally meet him. I went under the mess hall through the sewers and up and over to a different wing of the Shelter. I'd collapsed twice since then. There is... There is someone in my head... Someone else... What is wrong with me? Suddenly the hallway began to morph in front of me. Everything changing colours, shape, texture. It all looked cloudy._

'_Look here, yes... It seems the visual cortex of this monkey certainly is of simplistic design. If I could just... Yeah, there, you see? Like moulding clay. Hate to interrupt your logical problem solving, let me put it more simply. You see, what I want you to see. Well it won't work if you're moving around, now will it? Don't look up the magicians sleeve!'_

My blood hadn't worked on the door. I wasn't pure. I hadn't understood at first. But now everything was clear. This was a disease. And I was infected.

**Location: New York**

**Current**

_'What are we going to do Monkey?' _We were almost at June's house. I had stormed out of the FBI quickly, without thinking. I was being rash. I was never like this. Before. Clarence and I had been trying to put Greenland behind us. It was a painful memory. Clarence and I hadn't always been so close. Part of it was probably being forced into four years with almost no one to talk to but each other. He'd use to want me dead.

_ "Its not too late to slam your head against the wall until you pass out, you know. It might be easier than carrying on."_

Or

"_Mmm... There's something about a rusty saw that just makes me purr. Had a tetanus shot recently?''_

Perhaps

_''My congratulations. Honestly, I mean it. I was only joking about the 'come get him' thing. Hehe. What say we celebrate with some nice, relaxing Cyanide? I'm sure I saw some Anthrax lying around as well...''_

He warmed up to me.

"I don't know Clarence, I didn't think it through all the way."

'_You didn't think it through? You really just don't get it do you? You told Suit back there that you were going to be YOU again, like from before I met you, you know you have to follow through now' _

"I know."

'_It's about time to, brown hair just doesn't suit you. It's far too much trouble to dye it every couple of weeks. I mean really? When we broke out, one of the first things you did was change your freakin' hair. You're such a girl.'_

'"Shut up."

'_You are. Hehe.' _I rolled my eyes and kept walking. In any other city, walking down the street having a conversation with the voice in my head might seem odd, but not here. Thank god. '_Lucky for you, you're going undercover tomorrow, as a damn English Professor to, I doubt anyone will think anything of it when you show up all... You... tomorrow._'

"You think?"

'_No. Now go in that Duane Reade and get some stupid hair dye already.'_

%%%

"Peter, can I talk to you a second?" Peter looked up from his desk. Neal had stormed out a few minutes earlier. He seemed really upset.

"Uh, yeah sure."

"Is Caffery alright? I've never seen him like that before. Should I take him off the job tomorrow?"

"What? No, no, its fine, he's fine. It's just... Something going on right now, but I'm sure Neal will be fine tomorrow, he's good at this, at acting.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it," he smiled and walked out. Neal, or Philip, had gotten really emotion when he'd brought up therapy. He really knew nothing about the young man whom he'd been working with for two years now. They'd said that they'd been together for 10 years now. So what happened 10 years ago? Who was Dr. Eminiss? He needed to sit Neal down and have a long _real, private, _conversation. Normally he'd just go along with what Neal was doing. Of course he'd wondered about Neal's past before hand, but this was more urgent. He wanted Neal to trust him. If he didn't trust him, then how was Peter ever supposed to help him. Why was Eminiss only just now calling for Philip? It'd been 10 years, so why now? Maybe he should tell El what was going on. She always knew exactly what to say in times likes these.

Everything was in place for the undercover job tomorrow. Neal was going to be going undercover as a student. If he really had been an English Professor once, than this should be a piece of cake. He sighed. He didn't know what to expect. When it came to Neal Caffery, Peter Burke hated surprises.

%%%

Philip LaFresque looked up to see himself staring back. His head dripping wet from having just been washed and dyed. The mirror to was wet, making his image some what distorted. He placed his hand on it and try to wipe away the mist that had settled there from the heat. It looked like it had before he changed it. Platinum blonde streaks intertwined with some dark hair. He took off his 'Caffery' suit, and put on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve white tee shirt, it was a bit too big for him. He grabbed a black vest and slid it on. After strapping on his boots, his shook his newly dyed hair and looked in the mirror a second time. He smiled. He felt as though a huge weight had been lifted. He'd been faking it for two years now. Pretending he was someone he wasn't. He could finally ditch the American accent, he had had plenty of time to perfect it in prison. But he was a proud British citizen.

'_You know we could always leave. You have all of your papers. They're perfect because they're real. We went to prison as Neal Caffery, but we're not Neal Caffery. We can go.'_

"Look Clarence, we're going to see this thing through, as long as we can anyway. If the Tuurngates are looking for us, we shouldn't stick around much longer."

'_But they are looking for us Monkey. Don't do anything stupid. Like getting us killed. That would be stupid.'_

"Yeah, and running, getting caught, and thrown back in prison where we'll be sitting ducks, is a smart idea."

'_Then we don't get caught.'_

"Oh, of course, because I was _trying_ to get caught, for _your_ crimes. _I_ haven't actually done anything. I suppose this is one of the down sides to having two people in here."

It was just a little after noon. What was I supposed to do now. I could go see Peter? No. Maybe Elizabeth might want to go get some lunch? She'd probably already eaten. Jones? He was at work. I was eager to show off my newly regained identity. It was only starting to occur to me that I didn't have many friends. Mozzie was busy. Alex was out of the country. That was it really. Everyone else were just work friends. Could you really call someone a friend whom you've never even told your real name?

He ended up just turning on the TV and watching reruns of Top Gear and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares for the rest of the day.

%%%

Philip dragged himself into work the next morning. Jeremy Clarkson just had a way about him, making Philip want to keep watching even into the late hours of the night. He hadn't been able to watch Top Gear much in prison, so he had to catch up on everything eventually. Why not last night. In his defense, Philip actually looked _more_ like a college student now. Yawning, messy tangled hair, and dark circles under his eyes. He _could have been_ up all night partying. From the looks of things anyways. When he walked through the doors, half the room had eyes on him. He looked up groggily. Okay, fine, he _may_ have had a bottle, or two, or wine last night as well. Maybe some more this morning.

"What?" He slurred.

"This is the consultant you have on my son's case?" A man standing with Hughes remarked. He was wearing a very nice suit, his hair combed back. He reminded Philip of himself as Neal. Thats when Philip looked down to realise that he was in fact wearing the same clothes he put on yesterday. He looked up again, then proceeded to walk around the man towards his desk.

"Caffery." Hughes, looked at him and motioned him back over. Philip dramatically got up from his chair, and slowly made his way back to where the two men were standing. All eyes in the room still on him.

"Gabriel Carver, nice to meet you," Philip out stretched his hand. The man stared down at Philip's hand, then back at his face. Not moving his arm. Time to put on the Neal Caffery persona _one_ more time. He cracked his neck, and then.

"Hello, my name is Neal Caffery, I work here with the bureau and I've been assigned your son's case and I can assure you that we will do everything we can in order to solve the case." He spoke in that American accent he was so sick of. "I will be undercover as a student in the class. I look forward to meeting your son as well." The man's eyes widened, as though he hadn't been expecting it at all. Philip sounded completely sober, and quite confident. His appearance did not quite match up. Slipping back into his English accent "brilliant, now that this is all wrapped up, I'm going to go back over there to my desk and get ready for class, yeah? Ta."

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)**

Clarence had finally shut up so I had started to make my way around the new area. I found a room labeled "Armory" down one of the hallways. So obviously I walked in. I made sure to close the door behind myself, not wanting one of the Infected to notice anything and decided to investigate. I hadn't expected to find anything. But there towards the back of the room, on a shelf was an old saw. I picked it, it could come in handy. As I made my way back towards the door, I heard it. The low sound of growling. I could see the light from the flash light move under the door. I quickly snuck towards the back of the room again and hid behind a large crate. I stayed there, crouched in the dark for some time. The growling never left. Although I couldn't be sure. Perhaps my paranoia was simply getting the best of me. I finally forced myself up when I thought that the growling had quieted. If I was lucky, the Infected was probably just nearby around a corner or something so that I could get out of the room and make a run for it. I took a deep breath and raced towards the door. I hadn't even made it that far. Ten minutes or more sitting in the dark of that room. Ten minutes the Infected hadn't decided to come in. I was perhaps five feet away from the door when it was ripped off its hinges. I immediately stopped dead in my tracks, falling down in the process. So much for running away unnoticed.

_Though the infected may wander around like mindless – for want of a better word _

– _zombies, they are no more stupid than a worker bee: automatons, yes, but far _

_from stupid._

_Howard LaFresque_

_Chief Translator _


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar or Penumbra.

AN: Thanks so much to X5-452and494 and AsheBriannaSerenity you guys rock xD I always tell myself that I should just write a one-shot cos that way I won't have to worry about updating, but I never do. With White Collar being on break, I'm certain my motivation is going to go down drastically soon, plus school starts back up next Thursday (I shouldn't have signed up for these stupid AP classes), but I'm going to try and avoid that. Also, sorry this chapter is shorter than the others :P

_"I know why you're here, Dr. Swanson has filled me in, I recall every single syllable of our conversation, there was ever so slightly an inflection in her tone that suggested she no longer trusted me. Why ever '_dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago'_ would she think that? We share the same history, you and I are history."_

_Dr. Richard Eminiss_

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)**

He'd wanted a saw. I had one. He said he could help me. I'd made my way to the Computer Room. Clarence and I had sprinted away from the infected in the armory. I'd been scared out of my mind, running for as long as I could, as far as I could, trying to get away. Clarence on the other hand was having a great time.

'_This is the most fun I've had in my entire life! Which isn't saying much._' He loved the chase. Thought it was exhilarating. I hid in the Computer Room. I wasn't the only one there. There was another. A man. Dr. Richard Eminiss. He asked for a saw, to cut off his hand, to help me get into the library. He was acting strangely. But I passed him the saw through a draw anyway. What came next surprised me. The lights began to flicker. I could hear screaming on the other side of the door. A small window above the door shattered. I ducked quickly trying to avoid getting cut. I took several steps back. The lights were completely out now. Clarence was laughing at me. I could feel my heart pounding. Suddenly the door swung open at incredible speed, I feared it would fly off its hinges. The man I had been talking to was not standing before me. This _thing_ was no man. He'd changed. He was one of them. Panicking, I turned to run, and so did he. I didn't know where to go, I wasn't familiar with the lay out of the room. I should have run to the door I had originally come through, but my mind was muddled, I couldn't think rationally. I saw a room on my left so I headed toward it. I was almost there when I tripped on a piece of rubble, falling flat on my face. Horror filled me when I felt someone grab my leg and pull me backwards. I screamed, trying to kick at my attacker in an attempt to get free. I felt as though my world were moving in slow motion. I could hear the growls getting louder and louder, the grip on my ankle getting tighter. Finally I was able to free myself, leaping up to my feet I took off to the other room. It was a dead in. The room. There was _nothing_ there. Every ounce of hope I had, vanished as I saw Eminiss enter the room behind me. I was trapped, backed up against the wall. I felt helpless.

**Location: New York**

**Current**

"Oh my god, is that Neal Caffery?" Jones got up and walked over to where I was sitting. Started laughing, putting on that 'Neal Caffery' smile.

"What can I say, I'm a master of disguise," I leaned back into my chair, hands behind my head. I had my ID, and I'd memorized Gabriel Carver's background. Clarence and I were perfectly ready for the assignment. Okay, we were _a bit_ drunk, but it didn't matter. Diana and Peter hadn't said anything about my appearance, but they still couldn't hide that look of shock in their eyes. I grabbed everything I needed for the operation, people were staring, but they knew there was work to be done. I put on my wire, and Peter, Jones, and I walked down to the van. They were going to drop me off, then park out front for surveillance.

"You really went all out on this Caffery, the hair, the clothes, the accent, just, wow."

"Thanks Jones, what do you think anyway?"

"I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this, but you'll fit right in."

"Well thanks, I guess. This is my stop," I smiled, Peter stopped the van and I stepped out.

"Okay, so keep your mike on at all times, if anything goes wrong we'll be right here."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill, I'm in room 129 of Montgomery, the TA should be there."

"You sure you're going to be okay Caffery, it's not your usual art thing?" Jones asked.

"Trust me, he knows plenty about English to," Peter stated.

"Really?" Jones asked me.

"I'm a man of many talents, you know that Jones," I laughed. Picked up my bag, and started walking towards the class.

There were people everywhere. Seats were quickly filling up, I looked around, there were two men in the front of the room, one of them must have been the professor, and the other must have been our informant, the TA. It wasn't a large class, maybe 50 students, but the room was small enough to just barely fit us all, leaving five or six seats untaken in the back. Something about the room was upsetting. It had an eerie feel to it. I couldn't quite place it, that feeling, I dismissed it and took a seat near the back next to a red head girl, and her brunette friend. I think they were talking about some weird mTV thing.

'_Oh goodie, an English class, this should be buckets of fun. Why did we have to come here? It hasn't even started yet and I'm bored. We could be in Fiji right now Monkey. Or maybe Croatia, I know you've always wanted to go there.' _Clarence thought.

'_Clarence, Clarence, Clarence, we're undercover. If you just help me out here, then I'll _consider_ the whole running thing, okay?_' Philip replied.

'_Okay fine, but if this gets boring, you fall asleep at some point, and then wake up in Fiji, you have only your self to blame.' _

'_Ha ha ha very funny. Don't take us to Fiji Clarence.' _

"_What was that Neal?" _Suddenly I could hear Peter talking. I jumped slightly, only expecting Clarence's voice, I quickly looked around for Peter before remembering that I was wearing a wire, and had I could hear what Peter was saying through an ear piece. The two girls next to me gave me an odd look and then one of them pointed off into the crowd and they got up and left.

"I didn't say anything Peter."

"_Jones just left to go get some coffee. So who are you really Neal Caffery? Philip LaFresque? Nick Holden? We need to talk."_

"I don't want to talk right now Peter." I was whispering, getting only a few strange looks.

"_Philip LaFresque, according to the records, went missing 10 years ago. What happened to you?"_

"Look, Peter, this really isn't the best time."

"_What happened? Why did you go to Greenland? Is this about 'Clarence?'"_

"What? No, my going to Greenland had nothing to do with Clarence. We didn't even know each other back then."

"_What is the Tuurngate virus then? Don't think I didn't look into this, the Tuurngate is an Inuit myth! Is that how you justify this?"_

"Can we talk about this later?"

"_Will you actually talk to me later?"_

"Yes, I promise, just shhhh class is starting."

'_You're not really going to tell him anything are you Monkey? He doesn't need to know about Greenland, or us! Our brothers are none of his business!' _Clarence was yelling at me.

'_It is his business if they show up and try to drag us back there! I'm not going back to the Archaic!' _I retorted. "Peter we'll talk later."

The professor stood at the podium, he jumped straight into the lecture. Apparently they were reading and analyzing "To a God Unknown," by John Steinbeck. I had been forced to read it back in Secondary school. The book was unbelievably boring. I refused to teach it in any of my classes. I liked for my students to pay attention, learn, and be interested. Giving them boring books like this would just make them hate the class more. I wanted it to be a good learning experience, but I didn't want them to fall asleep during it either. I eventually stopped listening and started looking around the room aimlessly. University students were odd. There was a group of girls in the front; they were all wearing matching pink outfits. Some sport jocks in the back, were wearing jerseys gossiping about girls. A group of Goths to the left, they had all sorts of weird piercings. But someone caught my attention. There was a man standing near the exit in the front of the room. He had thinning gray hair. He was wearing a dirty lab coat. He had on a pair of cracked circular glasses. I wouldn't have stayed on him that long, but he was watching me. It wasn't like he was just looking around the room, or listening to the professor. He was watching _me_. He was just standing there, staring. I gasped. Eyes locked. He didn't move, he just stood there. I don't know how long we were there, watching one another, unmoving. The next thing I knew, there was a hand on my arm. I let out a yelp, and quickly spun around, nearly punching a young girl in the face. I let out a relieved sigh, then quickly looked back over toward the exit where the man was standing. But he wasn't. There was no one there. I could feel something similar to panic rising inside of me. I looked around quickly, calculating, searching for the man, only to notice the young lady still standing beside me. All eyes in the room were on me.

"Uh… what?" I questioned. The girl pointed upfront.

"If you're not going to be paying attention in my class, then I suggest that you get out now Mr-?" The professor was speaking to me, everyone was watching.

"Um, Carver, Gabriel Carver, I just transferred here."

"Well Mr. Carver, you won't last very long in here if you don't pay attention. When I ask you a question, you answer it. If you don't know the answer, then you find out. Now I don't appreciate you wasting my time, and all of these students who actually care about the English language."

'_Who does this asshole think he is!' _

'_Shhh Clarence, he may be an arsehole, but we can't get kicked out of this class, its part of the job. Besides, I probably would have said something similar if this were my class.' _

"Um, what was the question?"

"The character in the book, Benjamin, who is he? What is he like? What was his fate?"

"He is the main character's youngest brother, he was a happy drunk, and he was stabbed in the back by Juanito by mistake."

"Correct. Please try to keep your focus on me next time, thank you Mr. Carver."

"_Neal, what was that!" _Peter questioned in my ear. He called me Neal, Jones must be back in the van.

"I'm fine sorry. I just… lost focus for a moment."

"_That's very unlike you Caffery, what happened?"_

"We're discussing a book I find horrendously dull. I couldn't help myself from simply fading out." I whispered. It was truth, just not the whole truth. The room was beginning to feel calmer. That eeriness seemed to have left the room. But know I know where it came from. The feeling. The man would be back.

Location: Greenland

10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)

I'd been able to escape the good doctor. I'd locked him in that room. Repaired the computer network system, and got everything I needed to get into the library. It was quite small. They had an odd selection, but that wasn't what I was concerned with, my father was supposed to be here, wasn't he? I circled the room, finding nothing but a locked door with no visible way of unlocking it anywhere. After several minutes I noticed something that caught my eye. There was a book sticking out ever so slightly on one of the shelves. I decided to humour myself. So I pulled it.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar or the Penumbra series.

A/N: Hey, I'm SO SORRY that I haven't updated in a while, being back in school I'm being overworked like crazy, almost no free time what's so ever, its sad, I'm a very lazy procrastinating person, working so much lately, I feel out of place xP I was going to update on Friday, but I ended up getting really really sick for the whole weeked Thanks so much for the great reviews :D I'm going to try and update more often. A good friend of mine recently wrote an Iron Man story, I Walk the Road Alone by lady_harker, she's a really great writer. Check her out, if you have some time or something.

%%%

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)**

I thought I was going to throw up. The scene in front of me was horrendous, my body felt as thought it was beginning to shut down on the spot. The smell was atrocious. All the air had left the room, and my skin was suddenly too tight. I couldn't control my breathing, I couldn't control anything. All I could do was sink down to the floor, unable to take my eyes off of the corpse before me. The rotting flesh. The blood. The lifeless unmoving body. My Father. I tried to regain control, to look away, to get the hell out of that room. Clarence was mocking me as I sat in shock on the cold hard floor, in the claustrophobic room that my Father had killed himself in. His clear, glazed over, eyes staring endlessly up at the dark ceiling. His arms hung by his sides, his mouth was still open. After sitting there for god knows how long, I was finally able to force myself up, knees shaking. I softly pushed a button on the wall, my eyes not leaving the body for a moment. I ran out of the room at full speed, slamming into another bookshelf. I grabbed on to one of the shelves to hold myself up as I emptied my stomach.

**Location: New York **

**Current**

When class was over I went outside, through the doorway I had seen the man standing in. Flashbacks to Greenland started going through my head again. I didn't want to stay here much longer. I was trying to 'embrace' who I was, I actually thought it might help, so much for Oprah reruns. I was feeling worse. I looked down at my hands, I knew they were clean, but all I could see was Amabel Swanson's blood on them. Was that who I was now? A killer? A white collar criminal? People assumed that pulling off cons was very difficult, but all you really needed was some physics and basic psych knowledge. Art skills wouldn't hurt. I'd painted a lot as a child, getting gradually better each year. Looking back now at something I would have done, say, a year ago, at the time I would have thought it was the best thing in the world, now I think it looks like a five year old did it.

I sighed, my bag weighing on my shoulder. Peter always said I could talk to him about things, but really I just kept to myself and Clarence. I didn't lie to Mozzie, my best friend, often, he's very paranoid and odd, but I know he cares about me and would tell Peter if he thought it was in my best interest. I desperately wanted to go back to how things were before, sure I had adjusted to this new life over time, but that didn't mean I didn't love my old life. Yeah, my students didn't care, and I didn't have any friends, but at least I was doing what I wanted to do, teaching. I never thought I'd end up in prison, or working for the FBI, it just wasn't what I wanted. I could run, leave Peter behind and try to start a new life teaching somewhere. I knew I could do it if I really wanted to. I liked to help people, it made me feel better about what I've done, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm not happy. I don't like looking at art everyday. I want to read literature, and maybe solve some pointless physics questions just because I could. Doesn't what I want matter? I would always feel bad about what happened to Red and Dr. Swanson, but it wasn't entirely my fault either. Yes, I had hit the button that put Red's life up in flames, but he had asked me to. And yes, I was the one who dropped that giant weight on Dr. Swanson's head, killing her instantly, but I was hallucination, in a way it was self defense, wasn't it? I honestly believed it was, at the time. I thought she was one of... Them.

I was ambivalent, I had no idea what I wanted.

Peter and Jones were listening in the van, probably bored out of their minds, I needed to talk to other students. Jones was going to talk to all of the students who were kicked out and try to get a list of people everyone knew, get a list of possible suspects. Once I had that it would be a lot easier. Maybe talk to each one about an essay we would have to write, but give each a different essay, wait, and see which one got me kicked out. It would be pretty easy.

We had been given an assignment, I wanted to just pass it off to the FBI, but this was actually a good time to get to know the other students. I saw a group of people from the class going over to the library, so I decided to follow them, maybe ask for help or something. I'd have to play dumb, because basically I was in the position to be helping _them_.

'_Monkey? Monkey, do you feel that?'_

'_Feel what?' _I asked.

'_I'm not sure. I don't think you should go to the library Monkey.'_

'_Why's that-' _I didn't finish the though, because when I looked up to the steps to the library, the man from before was standing at the top, near the entrance, watching. Watching me.

I turned around and started walking back towards where Peter and Jones were, but stopped dead in my tracks as I saw a second man, standing perhaps 100 yards way, watching as well. He started to walk towards me. I looked back at the first man, he to was headed my way. Suddenly I saw a third man, then a fourth, then a fifth, all walking towards me. I was surrounded.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Hi, I'm so sorry! It's been over a year since my last update, I feel like a complete asshole. I'm so so so soooo sorry! For whatever reason last night I decided to play Black Plague again! I'm in college now. Whenever I used to read fics and people would say "oh, I'm in college so I can't update a lot" I used to think they were just exaggerating, but now that I'm here, it's like "free time? What's that?" I'm just putting off work. It's been so horribly long since my last update, so I kind of doubt that anyone will read this, and I really am sorry. I'm going to try my best to get back into it :)

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar or Penumbra.

%%%

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Penumbra: Black Plague)**

"Wooooooah! Bleeding corpses! You lot must be programmed to just search out danger and throw yourselves headfirst at it. I'm starting to become seriously desensitized here."

A body. A body just fell from the ceiling. After all the horrors I'd already seen here, I still screamed. I was in a kennel. Where there was a kennel, there were dogs. I remembered the dogs from the mine, vicious horrible creatures. At least last time I had a real weapon to use against them. If they came at me now, God knows what would happen. The lights in the hallway were coming on one at a time. From everything that had happened to me since I arrived here, I just knew that the key card I needed would be at the end of the dark hallway. And if those sounds were anything to go by, being stuck in the dark would probably get me killed.

I took a deep breath, and when the light before me flickered on, and I ran.

**Location: New York**

**Present**

"So did you ever find, what's his name, LaFresque?" Jones asked, Peter nearly choked on his coffee right then and there. He wanted to get help for Neal, but he didn't want to get him locked up again. He and Jones were sitting in the van outside, Neal had just gotten out of class and should be meeting up with them.

"Maybe, I'll let you know if anything pans out," Peter said vaguely, he wondered if he should say anything else, or if Jones would say anything else, but neither of them got a chance. Neal's voice echoed over the speakers in the van.

"_Oh God no."_

"Neal! Neal what's going on? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Peter yelled into the mike.

%%%

I could see them, moving in around me. Closing in. I was going to die.

"Oh God no," I whispered, it was all I could get out. I thought I'd gotten away, I thought it was over. I could just barely hear Peter and Jones yelling into the mike, but I couldn't interpret what they were saying, I was too shocked. The Tuurngate, they'd found us. My heart was pounding in my chest, I thought it might explode; it'd been so many years since I'd felt this familiar kind of pure terror.

'_Okay, okay, relax, you're not going to die.' _Suddenly the things were gone, Clarence and I were standing outside alone. _'That's what's gonna happen if we stay here, we've been here to long Monkey, I can feel them, and they'll find us.'_

"What? You… you just made all that up? What, to make a point!?" I yelled at him, there was still adrenaline pumping vigorously through my veins. Several passing students stared at me and picked up their pace, I was screaming at thin air after all.

'_I'm sorry, okay, I just think it's time we left here, yeah. If we stay here much longer, eventually _that_ will happen! Listen to me will ya! Those brothers of mine know where we are, they've got access to those scientist's memories, they can easily get to us!'_

"W.. why… why would you do that to me?" I felt my knees go weak, I would've collapsed if Clarence wasn't hold me up.

'_Look Monkey, I did it to protect us! You need to understand what's going on! They're going to come for us! And we're just sticking 'round here like sitting ducks, it's time we get the hell outa here!'_

"But I… I like it here… I don't want to leave…"

"Then I'll make you!" He screamed at me.

I pictured myself back in Greenland, being chased by those… creatures, with Clarence screaming in my ear. Running for my life from that giant worm thing. Fighting off those dogs and spiders. Finding my father's dead body. _Killing _Amabel. _Killing _Red. I relinquished my control to Clarence and my world went to black.

%%%

"Neal! I need you to tell me where you are!"

'_What? You… you just made all that up? What, to make a point!?' _

"Dammit, Jones can you stay here? I'm going to go and try to find Neal," Peter jumped up and swung open the door.

"Okay, I'll keep trying to reach him."

Peter quickly looked around, he didn't see Philip anywhere, he knew where the English class had been so he took off in that direction. He turned a corner and saw Phillip standing twenty feet away, one hand over his mouth, the other running through his hair.

"Phillip!" He yelled, Neal turned and stared over at him for a moment before looking off at the sky. Peter jogged over to where he was standing. "Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah everything's fine," Clarence's rough voice replied.

"Fine? Everything's _fine." _Peter remarked. Clarence turned to him, and opened his mouth, seeming to hesitate.

"Yeah. What's going on with Philip and I is our business, _not yours_."

"Bullshit. This is my business, _Clarence. _Now what the hell is going on?" Peter grabbed Clarence's arm and pulled him a little bit.

"No, you listen to me_ monkey_, Philip is my business and my business alone. He's sound asleep right now and I'm gonna make damn sure that he stays that way until he's safe and outa here, got it? Now, grab me like that again, and I'll make sure that my smiling face is the last thing you ever see_."_ Clarence growled before storming off.

Peter stood staring after Clarence, he'd just been threatened by Neal's alternate personality. By a catch of the light, it almost seemed as if his eyes had darkened significantly to how they were earlier. He'd known Neal for a long time now, so what he knew for certain was that Neal needed his help now more than ever.

%%%

I was in a simple four-wall white room. The floors were tile, and the walls were bare concrete. There was a single light above me, florescent, flickering ever so slightly. I was sitting on the cold floor in the corner of the room. I was wearing my old thick wool turtleneck and blood stained red jacket, what I'd been wearing when I was there. The Shelter. I had my knees drawn up to me chest, and my arms wrapped securely around them. I could feel warm tears streaming down my face. There was no door to the room, but I could hear rough growls coming from the walls. A figure stood in the opposite corner, it was dark, but I could still make out my own features upon its face.

"Clarence?" I quietly choked.

"'Bout time you woke up Monkey, well, when I say 'woke up,'" he laughed. "You're just gonna have to stay put for now, but don't you worry 'bout it Philly, you can count on good ol' Clarence to get us outa this mess," he smirked, looking at me as though through the eyes of a predator. Suddenly the room seemed to get darker, and he vanished from my sight. I could hear the growls and scratching get louder, more vicious.

"Clarence! No! Don't leave me here! Please!" I shrieked.

"You're safe here Monkey, don'tcha trust me?" He asked sarcastically, with the slightest bit of concern laced in.

%%%

Peter stumbled back into the van a few minutes later.

"Hey, what happened, what's going on?" Jones asked.

"Jones, what do you know about Multiple Personality Disorder?"

"Well, I think it's when someone experiences a trauma and can't deal with it, so they create another personality that can. Why?"

"Shit, let's go back to my place, call Diana, get her to meet us there. We need to talk about Neal."

%%%

Clarence walked into their apartment at June's, he'd left Peter and Jones at the University and taken the subway back home. After Philip had passed out Clarence decided to take full control while Philip was out. Philip had come to, but Clarence had locked him away. He could hear Philip sobbing, the Brit had unconsciously surrounded himself in a 'room' not unlike that of the Archaic. _Stupid Monkey, _Clarence thought, he figured that Philip was punishing himself for something, maybe giving into his fear. He did care for Philip, they'd bonded, he was _fond_ of him, though he'd shoot himself before admitting it to the kid. One could not exist without the other. They were like yin and yang.

Clarence walked into their bedroom and grabbed two suitcases that he had under the bed, one for Philip's stuff, and one for his. He had Philip's original passport, somehow the kid had been able to keep up with the damn thing through everything. He was going to keep it, but now that Peter knew Philip's real name, it was too risky to use that. He blocked Philip out once and gotten some high-grade fakes, he wanted to go somewhere tropical. He'd let Philip out again once they get there.

Mozzie was the first person he and Philip had met when they arrived in America, Philip had wanted to go back home, but Clarence wouldn't let him, Philip LaFresque was dead and needed to stay that way. When they'd met Mozzie they were both really agitated and they fought constantly. Mozzie had helped them. He got Philip back on his feet, and helped Clarence get into art and conning. Clarence liked making the monkeys look stupid. Though most of the time in the beginning Philip just stayed in bed all day. Philip should've gone to a therapist, but what was he supposed to say '_I got trapped in a secret government facility in Greenland where I was attacked by zombies and infected with a virus that manifested as a second personality that tells me to kill myself.' _It would've gotten them locked up, though it turned out that Clarence was one to do that in the end. Philip was upset, to say the least, when Clarence let him drive and he woke up in prison. They fought for months, sometimes resulting in large screaming matches, needless to say they didn't have many friends on the inside. Philip had been attacked a few times, but it was nothing compared to what he'd already been through. Though when Philip would try and _reason _with them, Clarence would eventually take over and try to beat the living shit out of them but Philip would hold him back. Eventually they got put in solitary confinement, they'd fought a bit, but slowly they started to get along, now life without one another seemed unimaginable.

Clarence wanted to call Mozzie, get him to come with himself and Philip, but he was practically _kidnapping _Philip, Mozzie probably wouldn't approve. It was hard not to give in to Philip when the monkey started crying and begging for something, talk about _annoying_.

He finished packing and was picking up the bags when the phone rang.

%%%

Diana, Jones, and Peter were sitting in Peter's living room. Elizabeth was at work and Neal had stormed off, though he was at June's, Peter checked and filled in Jones on the ride.

"Wow, so, did Philip LaFresque have some sort of break and create this Clarence and Neal Caffery characters?" Jones asked.

"I don't know, we've never been able to find anything on young Caffery, and we've got everything on Philip but not his recent years." Peter replied.

"Because he was declared dead in _Greenland._"

"Right."

"So what do we do now?" Diana asked.

"I have no idea, _Clarence _threatened me today, he's the aggressive personality, I think Neal definitely needs help. Philip is more submissive, vulnerable. I don't think Neal is a personality at all. I think Philip must have been put through something horrible. Usually it's something that traumatic that happened as a child, abusive family perhaps. When he developed Clarence to help handle the situation, I think that Clarence manipulated Philip, made him think that he needed to pretend to be someone else so he couldn't be hurt again."

"Makes sense. You said that his father left before he was born? So his mother raised him, maybe his mother's boyfriends would… you know."

"Yeah maybe, we can try to talk to him? If that doesn't work, make him go see the department psychologist, get him admitted to a hospital. They can get him the real help that he needs."

"He's threatened you be before right? When you first found out?"

"Yeah, he didn't want me to do anything to come between him and Philip."

"Okay, we need to get him here."

"I'll call him," Peter sighed and pulled out his cell phone. It rang several times before someone finally answered.

"What?"

"Clarence, it's me, can you come over, we've had a break in the case." There was some hesitation.

"Yeah, fine. I'll be there in ten minutes," he hung up.

To be continued…


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry if any of the characters get too OC, I'm trying to keep them in character, but that's hard xP I like Clarence, but he was a total ass in the game. Please review :D

Disclaimer: I don't own White Collar or Penumbra.

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**Location: Greenland**

**10 Year Earlier (Black Plague)**

I was running. The lights seemed to be programmed against me, if I ran as fast as I could away from the 'dogs' then one light might not come on by the time I'd get to it. I had to run quickly, but be cautious of when a light would come on or turn off. I saw the light closest to me flick on, and ran quickly to stand under it. My pulse was pounding, I was practically jumping with adrenaline, the growls in the dark seemed to be getting louder, I almost thought I could feel hot breath on the back of my neck. I had my flashlight, my glow-stick, and a flare, but they seemed to have no effect on the murderous creatures. The thoughts ran through my head at rapid speed, before I knew what was happening the light before me turned on, and my light disappeared, surrounding me in darkness. I ran, I ran as hard as I could. I could feel things moving in the dark, brushing against me, the growls louder and louder. When I finally reached the light, the next one came on and once again I lost mine. I didn't even have time to gasp before I had to sprint again. I could see a light come on around a corner, I practically slammed into the wall scrambling to reach the light. There was a door, with light behind it, finally! I threw all of my body weight crashing against the metal frame, it hurt, but it was nothing compared to what would happen if I staying in the hallway. Flying into the room I spun around and shoved the door closed with all my might. My arms holding it shut I felt my legs start to shaken, the full force of what I'd just done came at me. I hyperventilated, taking in great gasps of breath, and slowly started to allow myself to relax. I turned around to get a good look of the room, I couldn't help but let out a small scream, all the anxiety seemed to rush right back again. There was body, blood smeared everywhere, god, the guy was covered in bite marks, had this almost happened to me? I leaned against the door for support, I sent my gaze to the ceiling and took a few deep breaths before willing myself to take a closer look. A keycard! There was a keycard on the floor next to him! I needed a keycard to get to Amabel! She was locked in her research office to stay safe, and I could only get in with a keycard, this keycard. It was the whole reason I was in this hell hole of a kennel in the first place.

"_Keycards? I hate keycards. Whatever happened to good ol' bolds and padlocks. That's what I want to know."_

I grabbed the keycard off the floor, I was so close to saving Amabel. I took a deep breath, and opened the door. I was staring into the darkness, I could hear the sound of the lights clicking on getting louder. I shuttered and braced myself to go back in.

**Location: New York**

**Present**

"Clarence! Please! Don't do this! Let me out!" At some point I had started rocking back and forth. I knew it wasn't real. I was in my own mind, safe. But it just seemed so real. I could hear Amabel screaming, I could hear growls and scratching against the walls. I could hear the faint sound of the Archaic's computer system speaking in the background.

"The Archaic demands- The Archaic demands- The Archaic demands- Thank you Philip- The Archaic demands respect among its workers." The sound of that horrible malfunctioning female computer voice. And of course, what would haunt my dreams forever. "There cannot be one. There can only be us all. There cannot be one. There can only be us all. There cannot be one. There can only be us all." Clarence's brothers, chanting over and over in my mind, or his mind, it didn't really matter.

"Clarence!" I screamed, but my voice cracked and several sobs escaped my throat. I buried my face in my knees and squeezed harder. Amabel's screams echoed in my head. Her blood soaked my hands. I couldn't stop it now, the flood gates were opening.

%%%

Clarence rang the doorbell to Peter's house. He had everything all ready to go, everything they'd need to start over. If he hadn't come over then Peter would know something was up. He'd know anyway, but Clarence wanted to have a good enough head name would be Thom Rimmer, from Birmingham England. That would make Philip feel better, being able to use his actual accent. Clarence smirked to himself. Yeah, he thought, Philip will like that. Poor Monkey, he was still pouring his heart out sobbing. Amabel, that stupid bitch, this was all her fault.

"Clarence?" Peter answered.

"Yeah, you said you go a break in the case?"

"Yeah, come on in." Clarence stepped inside, he was surprised to see Diana and Jones sitting in the living room.

"So what's going on?"

"We want to help you Neal, or is it Philip?" Diana asked.

"What the hell is this? You want to _help _me, sorry sweetheart, there ain't nothin' wrong with me, ya got it."

"Diana, Jones, this is _Clarence,_" Peter introduced him. "Clarence, do you think we could speak with Philip for a bit?" The stupid monkey was speaking to him as if he were a stupid monkey _child._ He couldn't help but scowl slightly. He looked over at their faces, it seemed that the Suit had gone and spilled the beans to everyone here.

"No," he growled. Peter's eyes seemed to darken, and Jones and Diana exchanged looks.

"Why not?"

"Philip isn't here at the moment, would you like me to take a message for you?" He spat.

"Clarence, I think you need to let us speak with Philip now," Peter said, using his small voice, but with a bit of anger weaved in.

"You didn't call Philip, you called me."

"He's with you though."

"No he isn't."

"What do you mean? I thought you were in the same body?" Peter asked casually.

"Now who the hell gave you that idea," Clarence laughed. "Okay, okay, you got me. Philip's here, but you can't talk with him, he's a bit… preoccupied. He's in one of those moods, if you get my drift," he laughed again. "I guess if there's no break in the case, I'll be on my way. Maybe I'll let Philip call you later," Clarence smirked and headed for the door, but Peter grabbed his arm.

"Let me speak with Philip," he demanded.

"Um, I'm sorry, I thought I told you to never _fucking _grab me like that again or you'll be a _dead_ monkey."

"How about you let us talk to _Philip_, or you'll be a _dead_ psycho," Diana stood up and pointed her gun at Clarence's head. Clarence's smile faded and he scowled and cursed.

"Fine, have it your way, don't blame me if you can't handle him."

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Black Plague)**

I threw the door shut behind me as I exited the kennel. I had the keycard. I'd done it! I relaxed against the door and let a smile spread across my face.

"_So, wanna make her rot a few more hours, make her really appreciate this daring rescue attempt? Or shall we go let her out now, get the most out of her while she's most vulnerable, nudge nudge, wink wink, eh?"_

I ignored Clarence and pushed myself off the wall. Amabel was so close! I was going to save her! Out of all the horrible things that have happened so far, finally something good was going to happen. We still had to cure me, and actually get out of here, but I really wanted to feel happy, even if only for a little while. She told me when I rescued her that she'd give me the biggest hug of my life. I smiled and started walking back up the narrow stairway. There was this flickering light at the top, it was too hard to make out from here, but I remember it wasn't there before. I slowed my speed and crept up the stairs along the wall.

"Oh God no," I gasped, it was one of _them, _an Infected with a flashlight and what looked like a pipe. That was the only way out of here, through _that, _but I was so close. Maybe… maybe I could out run it. It has it's back to me, at least I'll have the element of surprise, if Clarence keeps his mouth shut that is.

I tip toed up the stairs, desperately trying not to draw attention to myself. When I got within three steps of him though, he must have heard my breathing, or my boots hitting the cement, or whatever, something made him spin around. I sprinted past him before he could tell what was going on. I ran like hell, the thing was chasing behind, _oh god it's faster than I thought, _and it was growling and mumbling something. I didn't dare look back. I just ran and ran and ran.

**Location: New York**

**Present**

The room seemed to pull out from under me. I could faintly hear Clarence's voice saying "your turn Monkey." Light filled my vision and my senses were overloaded. My legs started to give out, but luckily someone was there to catch me.

"Please let me out of here, please let me out of here," I crammed my eyes shut and cried.

'_Pull yourself together Monkey, you're with Peter now," _Clarence told me.

"Peter?" I whispered.

'_At least try not to sound like a nut job, they want to lock us up Monkey. To _cure_ you, but we both know that'll never happen, so they'll _never _let you go, how'd you like that, hmm?'_

"Philip?" Peter questioned, I nodded and choked a little. I could hear someone whimpering, but I looked around and found it to be myself. I took a deep breath, and Peter led me over to the sofa. "Are you okay? What's going on? Did Clarence do something to you?" Peter sat down next to me, Diana and Jones were on the other sofa opposite. They all had concern evident in their eyes.

"No, I'm fine, I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Don't do this Philip, don't protect him. You almost collapsed just then, what happened?"

"Nothing happened, I was just thinking about something that happened once, okay, Clarence had nothing to do with it."

"Okay, look, Philip, we want to talk to you about your past, that's why we called you over here, alright? Don't worry, we're not going to do anything to your or to Clarence that you don't want us to do. Okay? We just want to talk."

'_Bullshit, they're going to take us a way! Try and cure you of something that don't need curing! They couldn't do it even if they tried! Now, you just gonna let him talk to you like that eh Monkey?'_

"You just want to _talk_? You're not going to try and lock me in an asylum?"

"No, no, we just want to talk," Diana said, and Jones nodded.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?" I sniffled and wiped my face a little.

"Neal—er, Philip, when you were growing up, I know your father wasn't there, but I'm sure your mom must've dated some, right?"

"My mum? Yeah, she did, what's this about Peter?"

"Philip, um, did any of her boyfriends ever, hit you? Or… touch you?"

"What! You think— why?" I practically yelled, I started to get up, but Peter put his hand on my arm and pulled me back down.

"That didn't sound like a 'no' Philip," Peter said calmly. I swallowed and looked around the room anxiously.

"No one ever _touched _me! I'm fine, what does this have to do with anything?" I said, my voice still raised.

"Did they hit you?" Peter asked, his voice still quiet and calm.

"What—just—once, okay. Just one guy—it's fine, I'm fine. It doesn't matter!"

"I think it does, Philip, when someone goes through a trauma, they can sometimes create a new personality, one that can deal with the stress that you can't."

"No, that's bollocks. You don't know what you're talking about Peter. Clarence isn't just something I made up to deal with a _trauma, _can't you just leave it alone!"

"We all care about you, and we won't let it go."

"I understand that, and I appreciate it, but Clarence is a part of me, we've been through so much, and I don't want to lose him."

"If not from trauma, how did you an Clarence get… acquainted?" Jones asked.

"Well, I was at this bar, ya know, and I looked over and saw little Philip sitting off in the corner all by his lonesome, our eyes just met and I just knew that we'd be together forever," Clarence spoke up in his sarcastic voice. Peter gave him a look, "what? You find out I wasn't the _first _inhabitant of this body, so you start treating me like the bad guy, so true colors eh? Because I specifically sought Philip out as a host," Clarence smirked again.

"Clarence, please, just let me handle this, okay?" I said quietly. "Clarence and I 'met' in Greenland."

'_Monkey… Monkey… Monkey!'_

'_What?'_

'_Can you feel that?'_

'_You're not going to get me like that again.'_

'_No, I'm serious. Can you feel that?'_

'_I don't feel anything—"_

'_Focus!'_

"Philip?" Peter interrupted.

"Hmm? What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Um… yeah, uh can we talk about this another time, I really need to go back home now."

"Did Clarence say something to you? Philip, it's okay—"

"No, I just, I need to go…" I jumped up and left.

'_So you do feel it?'_

'_Yeah. I do.'_

'_They're close.'_

**Location: Greenland**

**10 Years Earlier (Black Plague)**

I lost the infected and was finally able to get to Amabel's office safely. I pulled out the bloodied keycard and entered the research area. Surprisingly enough, Amabel was nowhere to be seen. There were three rooms connected to the one I was in. One of them was locked, and the other was a broken down bathroom. I pushed open the door to the third room, I really had no idea what it was supposed to be used for. I walked in and looked around. Suddenly the door slammed shut, I spun around, adrenaline already spiking. I ran over to the door and tried to pry it open, but it was locked shut. One of the doors in the room swung open and slammed against the wall. My eyes grew wide and for a moment I thought my heart might have stopped, an infected walked through the doorway and straight to me. I had nowhere to go.

TBC…


End file.
